Routing out corruption?
Guadalajara is starting a new program to eliminate corruption within its 2200 member police force. The program calls for police officers to report on their dishonest fellow officers. The Director of Internal Affairs argues that corruption among members of the force has diminished, stating that "we believe that only eight percent is involved in acts of corruption and abuse of power." That seems pretty high to me (176 police officers would be involved in corruption according to that figure). Officials announced that they would protect those officers who informed on others. So far this year, there have been 301 reported cases of corruption within the municipal police force.
Local News Focused on Infrastructure
A quick review of Friday's news in the Informador reveals how desparate the situation is in Guadalajara for infrastructure development. One article reports that the metropolitan area is 18 years behind in infrastructure and 12 years behind in the development of water systems. This stems from an era (the 1980's) when growth was uncontrollable and government policy prohibited them from expanding key infrastructure into irregular settlement areas. The Governor of Jalisco announced that they would finish the remaining 18 kilometers of the Periferico, a multi-lane highway which skirts the metropolitan area. Actually, when I was in Zapopan in 1988, there were already large areas outside the Periferico, so I imagine that there is even much more presently. The State will have to expropriate ejido land in order to complete the project which will probably cause some consternation among farmers causing the Governor to issue this statement, "Sin ningún temor, no tenemos por qué tenerlos, el orden de los factores no altera el producto y cuando hay orden, cuando hay razón, cuando hay objetivos sociales no tiene por qué haber desorden". The state will have to borrow in order to fund the project.
In another article, the neighborhood Tuzania is demanding electrical service. Apparently, they paid the developer 8 years ago to install the service which was never delivered. A few power poles were installed and that was it. The colony is located in Zapopan.
The Secretary of Health for Jalisco has announced the decentralization of health services in the state. It would be interesting to do a review of the development of health services over the past 25 years. When I was in Guadalajara, there were some excellent hospitals, but I was told that services available to the general public were very deficient.
